Batman (Tim Drake) Beats Superman – Superman # 37

Super Sons of Tomorrow part 1 starts here in Superman # 37 where Batman (Tim Drake) beats Superman in a surprising twist ending for the issue.

The issue was still done by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason. In this story, Batman (Tim Drake) beats Superman in an impressive and surprising finish but a bit of context first. Batman (Bruce Wayne) beat adult Tim over at Detective Comics after he targetted Batwoman for termination; that’s after he and the current Tim Drake (Red Robin) managed to escape Mr. Oz.

In Superman # 37, Tim does a surprise attack on Bruce Wayne at Wayne Manor and manages to defeat the Dark Knight. He steals something from Batman’s arsenal aka Babylon protocols and then proceeds to his next target, Superman.

We catch Superman rebuilding the broken statues of his adoptive parents Jonathan and Martha Kent at the Fortress of Solitude.

Then Kelex informs him of an intruder, checks out aforementioned intruder and gets gunned down by Batman…

Superman then intercepts

He then realizes that he’s not dealing with Batman after this Batman pulls out a gun.

Gotta love Tomasi, Gleason and the rest of the current Superman creative team for pulling some of the most frenetic pages I’ve seen this quarter. I mean look at the succeeding pages and see how everything’s crammed neatly from exposition to action panels and it doesn’t look cluttered too. Like the page shows how P.O.ed Superman is but the next three panels moves the story forward, then on the page below, its the same thing. Bit of explanation, bits of kickass action with Batman using cover to get inside Superman’s battle mech.

The two go back and forth in the fight with Superman eventually besting Tim Drake even when he’s using a Kryptonian battle armor.

The page above also again mentions Superboy aka Conner Kent who also happens to be missing from the current iteration of the DCU. It’s also an affirmation that Superboy did become Superman in that alternate universe because he adores Clark Kent so much. Plus points that the two sidekicks learned from each other as they grew up.

Superman still kicks out of this fight and rips Batman away from the Kryptonian Battle Armor.

So that’s what’s inside the Batcave, Tim had to steal the new weapon Batman developed to beat Superman in case he goes dark. And its super effective against the man of steel. So remember kids, Tim Drake beat Superman in Superman # 37!

Also do I hear the words “prep time”?